Four nights in a Looe B&B, with time to walk some coast, explore some prehistory and history, and meet a sister I only recently discovered.

Perhaps I should explain that last point – my real father left us when I was about 5, he married again and had three daughters, and my brother recently found them on a family history website.

Four trains got us to Looe, and a phone call got four of us together for a pub supper. Mel and her husband Alex, Jackie and I seemed to get on well. We arranged to meet Mel on the Polperro bus the next morning and walk along the coastal path back to Looe. We reached Talland Bay after two miles, and found the Smugglers café where I had

Crab salad and red wine with Talland Bay in the distance.

the crab salad and red wine I had been promising myself since I first heard of this fine establishment.

During lunch the rain got heavier so we decided to turn our backs to the weather and walk back to Polperro and The Blue Peter where I had a golden ale called Hoppy Days from the Bay Brewery near Torbay.

Jackie and Mel leaving the Blue Peter at Polperro

Found a mass of a vigorous plant along one section of path which reminded me of Japanese Knotweed without being Japanese Knotweed.

Himalayan Knotweed – not yet listed as a dangerously vigorous weed like its cousin Japanese Knotweed, but not well liked.

Investigation back home revealed it to be Himalayan Knotweed – and some want it listed as a section 9 plant in the Wildlife and Countryside Act, that is one which it is ‘an offence to plant or cause to grow’.

We left the Blue Peter and walked to the bus terminus with perfect timing for the 573 back to Looe where we said goodbye to Mel – with copious waving – before trying the St Austell Proper Job at the Globe, a pub near our B&B – Woodlands – where we returned to get dry and relax before going to the Smugglers Cott restaurant for coalfish with ginger and spring onions, apparently cooked in a paper bag. Lots of vegetables with it, and a bottle of Rioja.

No point in recommending the B&B, because we were their last ever guests, as Ron explained when he served the full English on our last day. He had hoped to sell the house, but now plans to rent it because a landslip just a few dozen yards away has caused property values to tumble – pun intended.